#casting directors

The Pitt's Noah Wyle, Katherine LaNasa, Shawn Hatosy, and R. Scott Gemmill attend the Deadline Contenders x HBO Max Nominee Celebration.

(August 17, 2025)

That's our Tom!!! 😁 Wow! He beat out 2,500 for the role of Spiderman. That's amazing! 👏🏾 I remember the search, and I remember the day he was cast too! ☺️

I always say that casting directors usually know what they're doing when they're casting someone in a role.... especially for a FRESH new role that carries a lot of weight. People oftentimes question their decisions, but 9 times out of 10, they're usually SPOT ON, and there's a REASON why that actor got the LEAD role over a dozen (or thousands lol) of others.

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ROFL!!! 🤣 😂

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👍🏾👍🏾

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So very true!! When you've seen BAD acting, you come to really appreciate the actors who can actually act.

It really is so obvious the difference between good acting and bad acting when you see the comparison. It's the believability factor that isn't there. Or, the actor sounds like they're just reading words off of a page lol. Or, they are OVER-acting, which is embarrassing in itself lol. 😂

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This is good to know. And I hope some racists people take notes. Sometimes, an actor who doesn't fit the exact mold of the book is simply just the best actor for the role based on others who auditioned for it, plain and simple!!

Sometimes, there isn't any "agenda". 🙄 Sometimes, some actors just stood out, and they just happen to be poc, or they don't look exactly how the person in the biopic looked, or they don't EXACTLY fit the exact description of the character in the book, but the actor is the BEST person for the role! Because good acting goes BEYOND what you look like.

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💯

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🥹🫶🏾

We're so very proud of him too. 🥰

Congratulations to Kal Penn who has publicly announced he is Gay.

He may be best known for the “Harold & Kumar” comedy films, and his role on the “House” TV series.

Penn was born in New Jersey; his parents were immigrants from the Gujarat state of India. His birth name is Kalpen Suresh Modi.

When he embarked on an acting career, he was told that casting directors preferred American-ized names. So as an experiment he put “Kal Penn” on his resume. He said the number of audition callbacks he received increased by 50%.

Penn also has his serious side - he spent 2 1/2 years as a volunteer member of Barack Obama’s Office of Public Liaison. While working in Washington he met Josh. They’ve been a couple for 11 years and plan to get married.

“I discovered my own sexuality relatively late in life compared to many other people. There’s no timeline on this stuff. People figure their shit out at different times in their lives, so I’m glad I did when I did.”

How Professional Directors And Actors Analyze A Script - Judith Weston via FilmCourage.com.

On the left, Jean de Tinteville, one of “The Ambassadors”, painted by Hans Holbein in 1533.

On the right, Edward Holcroft as George Boleyn in “Wolf Hall”, set 1529-36, filmed 2014.

So like I've been at a casting yesterday, and I got a really unpleasant experience. Like, it was really small but it pissed me off. Oh yes it did.

My whole fucking life I was told I'm tall. That I'm super tall. That I'm too tall. That people tend to look at me either I want it or not (my fro isn't helping but that's another subject for another day), that I should do basketball... You know, tall people stuff.

I'm 180cm. 5'9 apparently. And one of the members of the casting team told that I look like a dwarf (on a picture I held them before).

I wasn't supposed to hear it but my supersonic fucking ears heard it. And I was SO SO pissed. I was in an anger I couldn't describe. I wanted to fucking kill the person who said that and the people giggling around.

I was always told that I'm too tall. Yesterday I was called a dwarf. It was like a whole world collapsing because okay, I'm used to being too tall for 20 years old nice, but... Dwarf? Like, please sir calm the fuck down and judge yourself before judging others crudely.

It's just something I'd like to say to you, if you have an audition and you're not used to be judged on looks and not your qualities: you are gorgeous the way you are. As my bro told me "There will be other castings, other motherfuckers and other good people" and I felt that.

I hope you won't turn this anger against yourself, turn it against the people who harmed you and curse them as much as you can. Do not hurt yourself. Do not harm yourself. For me, it would have been an option a year ago, but now I just know that it's not worth it. Not at all.

There will be other opportunities, other motherfuckers to fight, other great people to meet but no another you. So love yourself, cherish yourself and one day, you'll be that person you dream about.

New episode of Tip of the Tongue! This month we’re talking about PROFESSIONAL CASTING DIRECTION! Learn how to get your foot in the door in the professional industry, what you should avoid doing to stay on a casting director’s good side, and whether or not directing might be right for you!

This is my favorite episode we’ve done because we’ve got two absolutely fabulous guests! From the LA circuit we have Griffin Puatu (One Punch Man, Hunter x Hunter, Shadowverse) and from the Dallas circle we have Marissa Lenti (One Piece, RWBY, Nambaka)! These two are professional casting directors and had a lot of awesome stuff to say about the field. In fact so much that this is our longest episode ever! Take a listen! :D

TIMESTAMPS

2:09 - How do you Network with Professionals? 14:25 - Avoiding Shady Contacts/Agencies 20:12 - Where Do You Go to Get Heard? 35:14 - How to piss off a casting director! Things NOT to do! 48:21 - Narrowing down the casting choices 1:05:08 - Casting directors want you to succeed! 1:13:32 - Social media can screw you! 1:17:45 - Should YOU be a director? Is directing right for you?

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